Crown Prince Challenged

Other Books in the Brookmeade Young Riders Series

Crown Prince

First published in 2012 by

Trafalgar Square Books

North Pomfret, Vermont 05053

Printed in the United States of America

Copyright © 2012 Linda Snow McLoon

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, by any means, without written permission of the publisher, except by a reviewer quoting brief excerpts for a review in a magazine, newspaper, or website.

Disclaimer of Liability

The author and publisher shall have neither liability nor responsibility to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the information contained in this book. While the book is as accurate as the author can make it, there may be errors, omissions, and inaccuracies.

     Trafalgar Square Books encourages the use of approved safety helmets in all equestrian sports.

     This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

McLoon, Linda Snow.

  Crown prince challenged / Linda Snow McLoon.

    p. cm. -- (Brookmeade young riders series)

  Summary: Sarah Wagner dreams that she and her former racetrack rogue, Crown Prince, will someday reach the highest levels of equestrian competition and with help from trainer Jack O'Brien they are on their way, but first they must face hostility from other Brookmeade Farm riders.

  ISBN 978-1-57076-545-2 (pbk.)

[1. Horsemanship--Fiction. 2. Race horses--Fiction. 3. Interpersonal relations--Fiction.] I. Title.

  PZ7.M478725Cro 2012

  [Fic]--dc23

2012024423

Book design by Lauryl Eddlemon

Front cover design by Jennifer Brandon

Cover artwork and points-of-the-horse illustration by Jennifer Brandon (
www.jachestudio.com
). Copyright and all reproductive rights to the artwork, inclusive of complete ownership of the physical artworks themselves, are the property of and reserved to the artist. Typeface: Palatino

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Dedication

To the generous and loyal horses I was privileged to have in my life—good friends all.

  
1
End of Summer

  
2
On the Loose

  
3
Injury

  
4
Warning!

  
5
The New Boy

  
6
Trouble Brewing

  
7
Enemies

  
8
Chance Encounter

  
9
Moving Up

10
The Meadow Trail

11
Young Riders

12
The Bullies

13
Autumn Days

14
Rock Walls

15
First Snow

16
An Announcement

17
The Quarrel

18
Spring at Last

19
Cross-Country School

20
Wild Ride

21
The Team

22
Ditched

23
Making Plans

24
Wexford Hall

25
The Test

26
On Course

27
Prince's Challenge

28
Show Jumping

29
Tough Luck

30
To the Rescue

31
Bitter Consequences

Glossary

Points of the Horse

SARAH WAGNER TAPPED HER FINGERS
on the desk as she waited for her homeroom class to be excused. It was nearly the end of the first day of school at Yardley High, and her eyes were riveted on the classroom clock. When the bell sounded, she grabbed her tote bag and joined the swarm of students hurrying out of the building. She went straight to the Ridge Road bus, where Kayla Romano was saving her a seat. With her curly red hair, cut short, and pancake freckles, Kayla was easy to spot.

When Sarah plunked down beside her best friend, Kayla slid over to give Sarah more room. “How'd it go, kid?” Kayla asked. Kayla liked to remind Sarah she was two months her senior.

“I got Mr. Rawlins for Geometry. Everyone says he's totally cool. I like my other teachers, too. How about you?”

“Okay, I guess,” Kayla replied. “I'm glad we're in English together, but I wish I had a different teacher for World History. I've already got a ton of homework.” Both girls grabbed the seat in front of them as the bus lurched around the sharp corner coming out of the parking lot. “Enough about school. Are you going to ride this afternoon?”

Sarah's thoughts turned to Crown Prince, the beautiful, dark bay horse she had gotten off the racetrack at the beginning of the summer. Today would be the first time she hadn't been at the farm in the morning to feed the horses, which was part of her job that paid for Prince's board. Lucas, the young worker who was back after having the summer off, would have made the rounds feeding grain and hay. She hoped he remembered to turn Prince out for a few hours, but of course the barn manager, Gus, would have reminded him. Gus might be a total grouch, but when it came to running an efficient barn operation where the horses got the best of care, Sarah had to admit he was on top of everything.

Sarah raised her voice over the laughing and commotion on the bus. “It's going to be tight. I definitely want to ride, but I've got to have time to clean Prince's stall before I do the night feed. You have your lesson today. Will it be a mad rush to get Fanny to the farm in time?”

“Mom will have the trailer hooked up and everything ready, so we should be okay,” Kayla said. She raised an eyebrow. “We've had plenty of practice.”

Kayla had been bringing her chestnut Quarter Horse, Fanfare, to Brookmeade Farm for weekly lessons ever since she'd gotten the mare a few years earlier. They'd done well in several horse shows over the summer, and she gave a lot of the credit for how well Fanny had performed to her lessons with the farm's trainer and chief instructor, Jack O'Brien.

“I miss riding with you guys,” Sarah said, thinking of the talented group of young riders Jack taught on Wednesday afternoons. “It's been great having private lessons with Jack, but I wonder when he'll think Prince is ready to ride with a group. We're still doing a lot of gymnastic jumping, tailor-made for Prince, so I guess it'll be a while.”

“How's he doing?” Kayla asked.

“Oh, Kayla, he's awesome! He likes jumping, and his flatwork is coming along. Jack says that for a big horse, he's very well balanced. The only time he got a little upset was when one of Mrs. DeWitt's Jack Russells chased a chipmunk right in front of us. He half-reared and then spun around in the opposite direction.” Sarah adjusted the heavy bag, laden with books, on her lap. “Do you know what you guys will be doing today?”

“I'm not sure. But Jack told us to work on transitions this week, so we might do a lot of flatwork. Tim and Paige have two more events this fall, and they'd love to do better in the dressage phase. Rita always likes an opportunity to show off how superior Chancellor is on the flat,” Kayla said, putting a heavy accent on
superior.

Sarah couldn't resist a laugh. “Oh, come on—she'd not as bad as she used to be.”

When the bus stopped at her house, Sarah bounded off and hurried to the back door. Her younger sister, Abby, wouldn't be home yet, and her mother might still be at work. Alison Wagner hadn't recovered sufficiently from a serious car accident she'd survived the year before so she could go back to teaching fourth grade, but she'd found a part time bookkeeping job. It was always hard to predict what time Sarah's father might get home from his teaching job at the local community college.

Sarah took the back steps two at a time and immediately went to her room. She wasted no time changing into barn jeans and a T-shirt before picking up her brush and pulling her long dark hair back into a ponytail. As she fixed her hair, she considered her image in the mirror. A somewhat narrow face with long-lashed dark eyes, a high forehead, and an olive complexion gazed back at her.
Nothing there a guy would ever be attracted to,
she thought.

Back downstairs, she grabbed a few carrots from the fridge and stuck them into her jeans pocket before putting on her paddock boots in the mudroom. Minutes later she was heading to the barn on her bike. She had ridden this route every day since Crown Prince had come to Brookmeade Farm back in June, and she knew the bumps and curves by heart, including the half-mile entry road into the farm. This was the part she liked best, where she could see the three broodmares and their foals turned out in the green fields along the way. On this warm, early September afternoon, she was thankful for the stately elm trees that formed a leafy shaded canopy over the gravel road. She pedaled hard, crossing the bridge over the wide brook and flying by the bungalow where Jack and his wife, Kathleen, lived.

Finally she was coasting down the final hill to the parking area. Tim Dixon's car was already there, which meant he had come to the barn directly from school, and he'd probably given his girlfriend, Paige Vargas, a ride. Sarah envisioned them getting their horses ready for the lesson right now. Sure enough, when she entered the barn, she saw Paige, a striking girl with gorgeous blonde hair and deep violet eyes, in the aisle. She was grooming her dappled-gray Thoroughbred, Quarry, who didn't appear very happy. His ears were pinned back, and he tossed his head in annoyance as Paige rubbed his underside with a curry comb.

Hi, Paige,” Sarah said. “I guess Quarry isn't crazy about being groomed.”

“Actually he only hates it when I curry his tummy. Last week he asked Gus to fire me.”

Sarah laughed, something everyone did when they were around Paige for very long. Sarah stopped to look more closely at Quarry. “But seriously, he's looking better and better. He really filled out this summer.”

“Thanks,” Paige said as she flipped the curry comb back in her grooming caddy and pulled out a dandy brush. Quarry's eyes softened as she ran it in quick strokes along his neck. “It's taken him a while to lose that off-the-track, skinny look. I think that does help us a bit in the show ring. But handsome is as handsome does. I still have to work on keeping him from rushing his fences.”